FIRST POINTED PERIOD.
In the previous volume those styles of architecture in Scotland were dealt with which are directly derived from the earlier styles of Celtic and Roman or Romanesque art, and it was shown, in the examples of the Transition style, that the old forms were passing away and new forms were being introduced.
We have now reached that point in the history of mediæval architecture when it took an entirely new and original development. It has already been pointed out[6] that this new departure sprung from the necessity which arose for the invention of an elastic system of vaulting which should admit of all the arches, forming vaults over spaces of any form on plan, being carried to the same height at the ridge. This requirement led to the introduction of the pointed arch in the vaulting, and from that department it soon spread to all the other arched features of the architecture.
This new development took place at a time when great changes were occurring, especially in France, in social and intellectual life. Men’s minds were then gradually awakening, science and instruction were spreading under Abailard and other teachers, the towns were obtaining their freedom, and a new system of things was gradually unfolding itself.
Architecture, which had hitherto been confined to the monasteries, was now undertaken by laymen, who, discarding the old traditional methods, strove after a new and simpler mode of expressing their ideas in stone. The elaborate and stereotyped features and ornaments of the Romanesque style were rejected, and simpler forms, at first almost without ornament, were adopted, which emphasised the constructional elements of the architecture.
Of this simple, but vigorous, early pointed style numerous examples still exist in France and Spain. When introduced amongst the Normans and English towards the close of the twelfth century the pointed style had acquired a certain amount of ornamentation of a new and appropriate description.
The examples already illustrated show that during the Transition period the new style was making itself felt in Scotland about the end of the twelfth century. At Dundrennan and Jedburgh Abbeys the pointed arch becomes prominent amongst the round arches of the earlier style, but many of the old enrichments are still adhered to. This clinging to old forms may still to a certain extent be noticed in some of the structures whose leading features are in the first pointed style, but these relics gradually, though slowly, disappear. The round arch, however, sometimes maintains its position in Scottish doorways throughout the whole of the Gothic period.[7]
The pointed arch is above referred to at Kelso[8] as having been introduced, along with Norman elements, at the crossing under the tower, where its strength was considered useful. The pointed arch, however, cannot generally be said to have been adopted in Scotland in consequence of any special requirement of construction; it rather followed the lead of countries further south as a matter of fashion. Few of our early churches were vaulted throughout at the beginning of the thirteenth century, and the forms of such vaults as existed were, doubtless, borrowed from England. The vaults of the choir of St. Andrews Cathedral and the lower church of Glasgow Cathedral are probably the only exceptions, most of our other large churches having been vaulted, if vaulted at all, at a later period. The large churches were generally designed to have the side aisles only vaulted, the central aisle being covered with a wooden roof, as, for example, Arbroath Abbey and Dunblane and Elgin Cathedrals. Holyrood Abbey is an exception; but there the vaulting of the central aisle was sexpartite, and the pointed arch was not much required.
The first pointed style, when introduced into this country, speedily spread, and most of our large churches are built in that style. Many monasteries, as we have seen, were founded in the time of the sons of Queen Margaret; but most of these appear to have been at first on a small scale, and were chiefly rebuilt on a larger plan, together with new monasteries, in the thirteenth century. Such are the abbeys of Holyrood, Inchcolm, Kilwinning, Pluscardine, Culross, and Beauly.
The thirteenth century was also distinguished as the great epoch for the erection of cathedrals. The secular clergy had then risen to power, and, under their guidance, the erection of magnificent cathedrals, both at home and abroad, was the principal architectural phenomenon of the period. In France and England the great majority of the cathedrals owe their origin or completion to about this epoch; and in Scotland there were erected, in whole or part, during the first pointed period, the cathedrals of St. Andrews, Dunblane, Glasgow (the choir and crypt), Elgin, Brechin, Dunkeld, Caithness, the choir of St. Magnus’ in Orkney, and Galloway.